I had an Elite for a very short time. My impression was that it would be great for someone who is gigging a lot and needs something very reliable and consistently easy to play. It was quite heavy for a strat but a good all round package - except for the pickups. The best way I can describe the tone is that it was as if there was a noise gate cutting in at certain frequencies. All sounded a bit artificial if you are sitting in front of your small valve amp (with NOS valves) but could be brilliant for a working musician.

Try a G&L - You won't find a bad review and I haven't found anything better in that £1.5k price range. They're going up in price a bit now, but you should still be able to find mint condition around £950.

I had an Elite for a very short time. My impression was that it would be great for someone who is gigging a lot and needs something very reliable and consistently easy to play. It was quite heavy for a strat but a good all round package - except for the pickups. The best way I can describe the tone is that it was as if there was a noise gate cutting in at certain frequencies. All sounded a bit artificial if you are sitting in front of your small valve amp (with NOS valves) but could be brilliant for a working musician.

Agree with this.

I have tried a 2 Elites and to be honest I wasn’t very impressed. They are well built guitars and give you typical stratty sounds but they were heavy (probably 8-9lbs) and felt a bit cold, hard to put it in words but a lack of character in my opinion and i just couldn’t bond with them.

My strat has a classic player neck on, so 12” I think. Feels fine. I like 9.5” also, as long as the guitar can be set up well I just adjust to whatever it is. If you ant a bit of ‘fight’ back in it it can be achieved with string guage and action.

I was never a fan of posh Strats either to be honest but mine was a minter, it was local too so I could try it first. It looks and sounds amazing, it’s a joy to play and stays in tune. Best £1400 I’ve ever spent.